My Page About Me

A sketchy biographyof Philip Nel.

In the spring of 1968, Phil's mom and dad emigrated from South Africa to the United States. After a few months living in Cambridge (Massachusetts), they moved to the suburbs and, there, your webmaster's story begins.

The first of his family to be born in the U.S., Philip Nel burst onto the scene in 1969. He spent his early years in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, where he indulged in drooling, reading Dr. Seuss's collected works, and drawing with his purple crayon. 1971 saw the birth of his one-and-only sister Linda. In 1980, their prescient parents bought the family's first home computer (a TRS-80, Model I). In 1984, following a move to Wallingford, Connecticut, Choate accepted him, a decision that puzzles the school's admissions office to this day. After graduating from Choate in 1988, Mr. Nel traveled northwest to Rochester, New York, where he studied English and Psychology at the University of Rochester. In 1992, he received not only a B.A., but also a handsome debt that he finally finished paying off in 2005.

The books on Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss have brought considerable media attention. Phil has been quoted or featured in dozens of media venues, including CBS Sunday Morning, National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, National Public Radio's Morning Edition, National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, BBC/PRI's The World, The Voice of America, The Washington Post, CNN.com, US News and World Report, USA Today, The New York Daily News, the Associated Press, The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), The National Post (Toronto, Canada), Investor's Business Daily, Publishers Weekly, MacLean's, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Kansas City Star, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Hartford Courant, Radio National's Book Talk (Australia), among others.

Since this page is bragging about -- er, sharing -- Phil's achievements, let's take a moment to list some awards. Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature won SWPACA's Rollins Book Award, and was a Children's Literature Association Honor Book It and Crockett Johnson's Barnaby Volume One were each nominated for an Eisner Award. (Both lost.) He has been the recipient of a Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellowship, an NEH Summer Stipend, and a Kansas State University William L. Stamey Teaching Award. Choice Magazine named Dr. Seuss: American Icon an "Outstanding Academic Book of 2004." His "Dada Knows Best: Growing Up 'Surreal' with Dr. Seuss" (Children's Literature 27 [1999], pp. 150-84) won the Children's Literature Association's Article Award.

Despite his tendency to go on and on about himself, Phil actually has a few friends. Some of these uncommonly patient people can be found on the web: